Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture, From Constantine to Sherrie Levine

285 Pages·2011·5.18 MB·English

by  Richard Brilliant

Reuse Value
Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture
from Constantine to Sherrie Levine
Edited by
Richard Brilliant and Dale Kinney
Reuse Value
This book offers a range of views on spolia and appropriation in art and
architecture from fourth-century Rome to the late twentieth century. Using
case studies from different historical moments and cultures, contributors test
the limits of spolia as a critical category and seek to define its specific character
in relation to other forms of artistic appropriation. Several authors explore
the ethical issues raised by spoliation and their implications for the evaluation
and interpretation of new work made with spolia.
The contemporary fascination with spolia is part of a larger cultural
preoccupation with reuse, recycling, appropriation and re-presentation in the
Western world. All of these practices speak to a desire to make use of pre-
existing artifacts (objects, images, expressions) for contemporary purposes.
Several essays in this volume focus on the distinction between spolia and other
forms of reused objects. While some authors prefer to elide such distinctions,
others insist that spolia entail some form of taking, often violent, and a
diminution of the source from which they are removed.
The book opens with an essay by the scholar most responsible for the popularity
of spolia studies in the later twentieth century, Arnold Esch, whose seminal
article “Spolien” was published in 1969. Subsequent essays treat late Roman
antiquity, the eastern Mediterranean and the Western Middle Ages, medieval
and modern attitudes to spolia in southern Asia, the Italian Renaissance, the
European Enlightenment, modern America, and contemporary architecture
and visual culture.
Richard Brilliant is Professor of Art History & Archaeology and Anna S. Garbedian
Professor in the Humanities Emeritus at Columbia University, USA; and Dale Kinney
is Eugenia Chase Guild Professor in the Humanities Emeritus at Bryn Mawr College,
USA.
Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953, San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art (Art © Estate of Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York,
Reuse Value
Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture
from Constantine to Sherrie Levine
Edited by Richard Brilliant and Dale Kinney
© Richard Brilliant and Dale Kinney 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Richard Brilliant and Dale Kinney have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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Union Road 101 Cherry Street
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401–4405
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England
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Reuse value : spolia and appropriation in art and architecture from Constantine
to Sherrie Levine.
1. Appropriation (Art) – History. 2. Appropriation (Art) – Case studies.
3. Building materials – Recycling – History. 4. Building materials – Recycling
– Case studies. 5. Classical antiquities – Destruction and pillage.
I. Brilliant, Richard. II. Kinney, Dale.
709–dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reuse value : spolia and appropriation in art and architecture from Constantine
to Sherrie Levine / [editors], Richard Brilliant and Dale Kinney.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978–1–4094–2422–2 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978–1–4094–3518–1
(ebook) 1. Architecture and history. 2. Building materials – Recycling.
3. Precious stones – Recycling. 4. Appropriation (Art)
I. Brilliant, Richard. II. Kinney, Dale. III. Title: Spolia and appropriation
in art and architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine.
NA2543.H55R48 2011
709–dc22 2011014772

ISBN 9781409424222 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409435181 (ebk) V
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
the MPG Books Group, UK
Contents
List of Figures vii
About the Authors   xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction   1
Dale Kinney
1 OntheReuseofAntiquity:ThePerspectivesofthe
ArchaeologistandoftheHistorian   13
Arnold Esch
2 ReadingSpolia inLateAntiquityandContemporary
Perception   33
Paolo Liverani
3 TheUseofOlderElementsintheArchitectureofFourth-
 andFifth-CenturyRome:AContributiontotheEvaluation
 ofSpolia   53
Hugo Brandenburg
4 Spolia: ADefinitioninRuins   75
Michael Greenhalgh
5 AncientGemsintheMiddleAges:RichesandReady-mades   97
Dale Kinney
6 AppropriationasInscription:MakingHistoryintheFirst
 FridayMosqueofDelhi   121
Finbarr Barry Flood
vi ReuseValue
7 RenaissanceSpoliaandRenaissanceAntiquity
(OneNeighborhood,ThreeCases)   149
Michael Koortbojian
8 AuthenticityandAlienation   167
Richard Brilliant
9 TheTribuneTower:SpoliaasDespoliation   179
Annabel J. Wharton
10 AMedievalMonumentanditsModernMythsofIconoclasm:
 TheEnduringContestationsovertheQutbComplexinDelhi,
 India   199
Mrinalini Rajagopalan
11 SpoliainContemporaryArchitecture:SearchingforOrnament
 andPlace   223
Hans-Rudolf Meier
12 SomeThoughtsAbouttheSignificanceofPostmodern
AppropriationArt   237
Donald Kuspit
Epilogue:OpenSesame:TheArtTreasuresoftheWorldonCall   251
Richard Brilliant
Index 255
List of Figures
Frontispiece Robert Rauschenberg, grain-measure of the Roman commune,
Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953, San with the fourteenth-century engraving
Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Art © of the communal coat of arms (photo:
Estate of Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom,
by VAGA, New York, NY). Neg. 60.774).
Fig. 1.6 Pieve San Giovanni near
1 On the Reuse of Antiquity
Campiglia Marittima (Tuscany), twelfth-
century: lintel imitating a Roman
Fig. 1.1 Bevagna (Umbria), San
sarcophagus (photo: Esch).
Michele, end of the twelfth century: door
jamb (photo: Esch).
5 Ancient Gems in the Middle Ages
Fig. 1.2 Paros, Venetian kastro,
thirteenth century: spolia from the Fig. 5.1 Herimann’s Cross, recto,
Temple of Athena and a porticus on the Kolumba. Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums
ancient agora (photo: Esch). Köln (photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Nr.
8361[a]).
Fig. 1.3 Civita Castellana, Arch in
honor of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Fig. 5.2 Herimann’s Cross, verso, after
c. 1480, constructed with selected pieces Schnitzler, Rheinische Schatzkammer,
of the decoration of a demolished tomb Tafelband (Düsseldorf: Verlag L. Schwann,
on the via Flaminia (photo: Esch). 1957), pl. 68.
Fig. 1.4 Ostia, statue of Venus on Fig. 5.3 Herimann’s Cross, recto, head
its discovery, now inv. 1239 in the of Christ/Roman imperial cameo (photo:
museum of Ostia Antica (photo: Archivio Rheinisches Bildarchiv Nr. L2422/25).
Fotografico della Sopraintendenza per i
beni archeologici di Ostia, neg. B 2799). Fig. 5.4 Matthew Paris, Liber
additamentorum, fol. 146v, drawing of the
Fig. 1.5 Rome, Musei Capitolini, cameo of King Ethelred (photo: © British
funerary inscription of Agrippina the Library Board, Cotton Nero D. I).
Elder (CIL VI 886) from the Mausoleum
of Augustus; used on the Capitol as the Fig. 5.5  The Lothar Cross, Aachen,
viii Reuse Value
Schatzkammer des Doms (photo: Erich di Giuliano da Sangallo: codice Vaticano
Lessing/Art Resource, NY). Barberiniano Latino 4424 [Leipzig:
Harrassowitz, 1910], vol. 1, pp. 52–3;
reproduced courtesy of The Marquand
6 Appropriation as Inscription
Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton
Fig. 6.1 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, eastern University Library).
entrance with inscribed lintels (photo:
Fig. 7.5 Rome, Porticus Octaviae, inner
Flood).
face of pediment as restored in 203 (photo:
Fig. 6.2 Delhi, the Qutb Minar, 1199 Koortbojian).
onwards (photo: Flood).
8 Authenticity and Alienation
Fig. 6.3 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, northern
courtyard arcade (photo: Flood).
Fig. 8.1 Rome, Arch of Constantine,
south side (photo: Brilliant).
Fig. 6.4 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, schematic
ground-plan in 1192 (Max Schneider).
Fig. 8.2 Rome, Arch of Constantine,
diagram showing origins of figural
Fig. 6.5 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, schematic
ornament (drawing: Alfred Frazer).
ground-plan of the complex constructed
in the 1220s (Max Schneider).
Fig. 8.3 Nîmes, Augustan Temple
(“Maison Carrée”) (photo: Vanni/Art
Fig. 6.6 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, Iron Pillar
Resource, NY).
and Monumental Screen of the Prayer
hall, added 1198 (photo: Flood).
9 The Tribune Tower
7 Renaissance Spolia
Fig. 9.1 Chicago Tribune Competition,
the winning submission by Hood
Fig. 7.1 Rome, Palazzo Mattei, courtyard
and Howells (after The International
façade with spolia and inscription (photo:
Competition for a New Administration
Koortbojian).
Building for the Chicago Tribune, MCMXXII,
Fig. 7.2 Rome, House of Lorenzo Containing All the Designs Submitted in
Manlio, façade with inscription (photo: Response to the Chicago Tribune’s $100,000
Koortbojian). Offer Commemorating Its Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary, June 10, 1922 [Chicago:
Fig. 7.3 Bernardo Gamucci, Le antichità Chicago Tribune Corporation, 1923], Plate
della città di Roma (Venice: Giovanni 1 [copyright: fair use]).
Varisco, 1580), fol. 137v, woodcut
illustration of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria Fig. 9.2 Classical and Byzantine
(photo: reproduced courtesy of The submissions, Chicago Tribune Tower
Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Competition (after Chicago Tribune Tower
Princeton University Library). Competition/Late Entries [New York:
Rizzoli, 1980], vol. 1, p. 111 [copyright: fair
Fig. 7.4 Giuliano da Sangallo, use]).
Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. Lat. 4424, Fig. 9.3 Chicago, Tribune Tower, street
fol. 35v (after Christian Huelsen, Il Libro view of the façade (photo: Wharton).
List of Figures ix
Fig. 9.4 Chicago Tribune Tower, section 11 Spolia in Contemporary
of the façade with fragments of the Architecture
House (sic!) of Parliament, the dome of
Fig. 11.1 Dresden, Caritas Building
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pyramid
at Gaza (sic! inscription in the process of Görlitzer Street, annex; architect: Dieter
Winkler, 2003 (photo: Iris Engelmann,
correction) and two pieces from temples
Weimar/Dresden, 2009).
in Cambodia (photo: Wharton).
Fig. 11.2 Brunswick, “Schloss-
10 A Medieval Monument Arkaden” with spolia used to reconstruct
the façade of the former Ducal Palace,
Fig. 10.1 Archaeological Survey of 2007 (photo: Meier).
India, slide of Krishnagiri, c. 1906–07
(photo: © British Library Board, Photo Fig. 11.3 Utrecht, City Hall, new
3/2, 64). wing with spolia from a former annex;
architects: Enric Miralles and Benedetta
Fig. 10.2 Delhi, Qutb complex, Jain Tagliabue, 1997–2001 (photo: Martin
and Hindu spolia in the Quwwat-ul- Thumm, Hildesheim, 2010).
Islam Mosque courtyard, 2009 (photo:
Rajagopalan). Fig. 11.4 Berlin, Residence on
Lindenstraße, front section of the
Fig. 10.3 Delhi, Qutb Mosque, Iron Wohnpark at the Berlin Museum
Pillar, photograph by Charles Shepherd, with spolia exhibited as found objects;
c. 1872 (photo: Collection Centre architects: Werner Kreis and Ueli and
Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Peter Schaad (photo: Meier, 2010).
Centre for Architecture, Montréal).
Fig. 11.5 Munich, “Klostergarten
Fig. 10.4 Supervisor and molders Lehel” with neo-Romanesque biforia
in the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, from the previous structure; architects:
photograph by Charles Shepherd, c. Hild und K, 2009 (photo: Thomas Will,
1872 (photo: Collection Centre Canadien Dresden, 2009).
d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for
Architecture, Montréal).